High Tech Ceramics News articles from April 2003

High Tech Ceramics News archives from April 2003

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: Synthetic Gems Are More Than Pretty.
April 1, 2003... Synthetic gems such as diamond, sapphire, ruby, garnet, emerald, alexandrite, amethyst, and spinel are precious and semi-precious stones with applications in industry as well as jewelry. Synthetic gems and industrial crystals are a major global...

PROCESSING AND TECHNOLOGIES NY Contract to Starfire Systems.
April 1, 2003... Starfire Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of a unique family of patented silicon carbide forming polymers for the manufacture of advanced ceramic materials applications, has announced a $150,000 contract from NYSERDA (New York State Energy...

Ceradyne Receives SAPI Order.
April 1, 2003... Ceradyne, Inc. won a $13.8 million order for its small arms protective insert (SAPI) ceramic body armor. The new order was received from the U.S. Army's procurement agency, the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia. Shipments are scheduled to...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS Toward a Common Materials Language.
April 1, 2003... Scientists and engineers trying to share materials property data over the Internet will have an easier time now thanks to a new computer language called MatML-Materials Markup Language-developed by an international group of researchers from the...

POWDERS AND NANO CERAMICS: Pigment Produced by Hydrochloride Process.
April 1, 2003... Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (NasdaqSC: ALTI) has announced that it has successfully produced kilogram quantities of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment base using its patented Altair Hydrochloride Pigment Process (AHPP), and to date several...

Ceralox Intros High-Temp Oxides.
April 1, 2003... The Ceralox Division of Sasol North America, Inc. has announced the availability of two new 99.97% pure aluminum oxides-AHPA-0.5 and AHPA-0.5 with MgO-with improved economics for high-technology applications. AHPA ceramic powder technology is...

Japan Nanonet Bulletin Debuts.
April 1, 2003... The Nanotechnology Researchers Network Center of Japan, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology and being operated by the independent administrative institution, the National Institute for Materials Science,...

Motorola Builds Nanocrystal Memory.
April 1, 2003... Using conventional silicon deposition techniques, Motorola engineers have built a 4-Mb nonvolatile memory based on small islands of silicon measuring 50 angstroms in diameter. The silicon nanocrystals could form the basis for a new type of...

COATINGS: Carbon Nitride Thin Films.
April 1, 2003... Japanese researchers Eiji Kamijo, Yoshifumi Aoi, Tatsuya Hirahara, and Takashi Tochimoto (Faculty of Science and Technology, Ryukoku University, Otsu, Shiga 520-2194, Japan; Tel: +81-77-543-7465, Fax: +81-77-543-7483; Email:...

FIBERS AND COMPOSITES: Unifrax Introduces Microporous Insulation.
April 1, 2003... Unifrax Corp. has recently introduced its Excelfrax microporous insulation. The Excelfrax family of products is based on the microporous insulation principle, exhibiting extremely efficient insulating characteristics in the North American...

DIAMOND PRODUCTS: Diamond Films for Detect Bioweapons.
April 1, 2003... Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Office of Naval Research, and Argonne National Laboratories have been working on making diamonds the heart of a new type of sensor to detect dangerous biological agents such as anthrax and...

FUEL CELLS AND BATTERIES More Powerful Lithium Batteries.
April 1, 2003... Researchers at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California, have developed a new class of composite anode materials. These materials are composed of silicon and graphite that may double the energy storage...

FILTERS AND MEMBRANES AGC, CSI in Diesel Deal.
April 1, 2003... Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC) and Catalytic Solutions, Inc. (CSI) have entered into an agreement to develop new catalyzed diesel particulate filters based on AGC's novel silicon nitride substrate technology and CSI's MPC(R) catalyst. Initially,...

ADVANCED GLASSES: Corning Reiterates Growth Projections.
April 1, 2003... Corning, Inc. (NYSE: GLW) has reaffirmed that it expects annual revenue growth for its LCD glass business of 20 to 40%, based upon anticipated trends. In a presentation before the 2003 Display Industry Investment Conference in New York City,...

STRUCTURAL CARBON: Graphite Cement Offered by Dylon.
April 1, 2003... Dylon Industries has developed grade GC graphite cement, a special high-strength bonding cement to join all forms of rigid, flexible, and machined carbon and graphite shapes. The new cement cures to a 100% carbonaceous bond with high electrical...

CHEMICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RELATED PRODUCTS Applied Ceramic in Joint Venture.
April 1, 2003... Purification Cellutions, LLC is a new joint venture of MeadWestvaco Corp., Stamford, Connecticut; and Applied Ceramics, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. The company's first manufacturing operation, located in Waynesboro, Georgia, is a high-technology...

ELECTRONIC CERAMICS: Vishay EFI Reaches Pre-Fire Capacity.
April 1, 2003... Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE: VSH) has announced that ceramic production for its high-density interconnects has reached the same level as before the fire that shut down the company's Electro-Films, Inc. facility a year ago. This new...

Cree Gets Largest Contract.
April 1, 2003... Cree, Inc. announced that Sumitomo Corp. agreed to purchase approximately $100 million of Cree's light-emitting diode (LEDs) products through Cree's fiscal year ending June 2004 subject to end customer demand and other terms and conditions....

Porous Semiconductors Synthesized at Berkeley.
April 1, 2003... Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have synthesized a large family of semiconducting porous materials that have an unprecedented and diverse chemical composition. The new materials show several different properties such as...

Power-Saving Lithium Modulator.
April 1, 2003... Responding to optical equipment manufacturers' need for lower power usage and smaller footprints, Corning, Inc. (NYSE: GLW) has introduced a 12.5-Gb/s Lithium Niobate modulator with the lowest drive voltage requirement in the industry. With...

Companies Partner on Process Technology.
April 1, 2003... Microelectronics R&D center IMEC, and National Semiconductor Corp. (NSC) have entered a 4-year contract to jointly develop an 0.18- micron and follow-up generation of SiGe-based BiCMOS process technology optimized for low-power applications....

UMC Begins 90-nm Production.
April 1, 2003... Semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) has started pilot production of customer ICs based on its recently developed 90-nm logic process. The company expects to move customer wafers to volume production later this year. UMC's...

Nano-Spin Labs Established.
April 1, 2003... The Institute of Electro-Communications at Tohoku University based in Sendai-shi, north-eastern part of Japan, announced in February the decision to establish a new research and development laboratory for non-volatile semiconductor memory, MRAM...

Shin'Etsu Enlarges Si Wafer Capacity.
April 1, 2003... Shin'Etsu Chemical Industry, one of three giant mass-volume 300-mm Si wafer manufacturers for LSI in the world and has about 50% worldwide share. The company has now decided to enlarge a monthly producing capacity of 300-mm Si wafers, from...

SUPERCONDUCTORS: Wire Development Workshop Concludes.
April 1, 2003... The 2003 DOE Wire Development Workshop was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, on January 21 and 22. The workshop's goal was to identify key issues or problematic areas in scaling up coated conductors to commercial lengths and in developing...

SuperPower Touts Conductor Achievements.
April 1, 2003... At the 2003 Wire Workshop, SuperPower, Inc. (Schenectady, NY) announced that it had produced its first 10-meter-long second- generation high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire with a performance exceeding 1,000 amp-meter. In a...

MgB2 Wire for MHD Magnets.
April 1, 2003... Hyper Tech Research, Inc. of Troy, Ohio, has been selected to receive a 2-year SBIR Phase II grant from the Air Force for the continued development of Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) superconducting wire for MHD magnets. This funding to Hyper Tech...

Conn Light to Boost Power Flow.
April 1, 2003... Northeast Utilities Connecticut Light & Power Co. has announced that it has purchased technology that will increase the flow of electricity on existing high-voltage power lines into southwest Connecticut by 100 MW. That corner of the state is...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Division to Carry CeramTec Identity.
April 1, 2003... CeramTec North America Corp. has announced that its division in New Lebanon, New York-Ceramaseal-will use the CeramTec corporate identity and logo. CeramTec manufactures and distributes a wide range of ceramic products, which include...

STI Wins Court Ruling.
April 1, 2003... Superconductor Technologies, Inc. (STI, on Nasdaq: SCON), a producer of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) products for wireless voice and data applications, has announced that a jury has rendered its verdict in the patent infringement...

Intermagnetics Net Income Climbs.
April 1, 2003... Intermagnetics General Corp. has reported third-quarter earnings increased to $4.2 million, or $0.25 per diluted share from $3.9 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, excluding one-time items in the prior-year period. Reported net income in the...

CPS Reports Flat Revenue.
April 1, 2003... Ceramics Process Systems Corp. announced a net loss of $734 thousand, or ($0.06) per basic and diluted share, on revenue of $4.5 million for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2002. This compares with a net loss of $480 thousand, or ($0.04) per...

MEETINGS: 55 Years of Ferroelectrics.
April 1, 2003... A symposium to mark the 80th birthday of Professor Eric Cross Marriott Hotel, Leeds, U.K., September 21-23, 2003 The contribution of Eric Cross to the field of ferroelectric materials and their applications is universally recognized by...

CALENDAR.
April 1, 2003... April 27-30, 2003. 105th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Ceramic Society, Opryland Hotel, Nashville, TN. Contact: American Ceramic Society, P.O. Box 6136, Westerville, OH 43086- 6136; Tel: 614/890-4700, Fax: 614/899-6109; Email:...